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Botswana: Implement Copyright Law
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Mmegi/The Reporter (Gaborone)
EDITORIAL
10 April 2008
Posted to the web 11 April 2008
Gaborone
On Monday morning, Btv interviewed a senior policewoman about an ongoing seminar on laws governing Intellectual Property in Botswana.
The facilitator appeared alarmed that the law provides for fines of up to P20,000 and hefty imprisonment terms for certain infringements of 'IT' laws. Significantly, the Deputy Commissioner of Police Mme Mma Mosarwa speculated that the proposed jail terms and monetary penalties against offenders could be increased to serve as an effective deterrent against abuse of IP. She named the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime, the prisons establishment, customs and excise, and some institutions that deal with indigenous knowledge, among participants at the international seminar.
Mosarwa said there were about four consulting officers from a department of the United States government. It is well and good for the state departments of the government of Botswana to share experiences and seek knowledge from their counterparts in the 'developed' world. But we should always be mindful of the need to keep the rights holders abreast of the most recent developments when these seminars are held.
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We suspect that it will be the large manufacturers and industrialists that will enjoy the immediate benefits of protection of their intellectual property because the greatest majority of them are foreign firms which will not do business in Botswana in the absence of the appropriate IP legislation. The indigenous creators, particularly the artists, conveyancers and producers of cultural artefacts that the law seeks to cover, have waited for over eight years since the first publication of the Copyright Act. There have since been all manner of hiccups, amendments of the original Act, and excuses for failure of the responsible minister to sign the law into operation after it was passed by Parliament.
We are compelled to suspect that since it is government, through its media at RB1 and RBII and Botswana Television who are the worst offenders, that the Ministry of Trade is lackadaisical in its efforts to complete its end of the deal.
Hopefully, the British Council-sponsored symposium over the week-end will give more inspiring information about the establishment of the collecting society and arbitration mechanism, the absence of which has been given as the reason for the delay in putting the Copyright law into action.
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